It was the most interesting 60 minutes of television I have seen in a long time.

The episode revolved around Simmons touring the streets of Amsterdam with his longtime girlfriend, Shannon Tweed. Upon returning to their hotel, the couple is met by a young boy who hands him what appears to be a letter.

Later on in their hotel room, Tweed reads the letter aloud. It turns out the boy is working on a class project and wants to interview Simmons. But he's less interested in Simmons' Demon persona than he is his Jewish heritage and his mother's survival of a Nazi concentration camp.

Simmons agrees to the interview and meets up with the boy, who takes him to the Anne Frank House. Inside, Simmons breaks down as he stares at the black-and-white pictures of the young Frank hanging on the wall.

"What did she do to anyone?" Simmons asks aloud in between sobs.

Simmons explained that his mother had a slight resemblance to Frank and was about the same age when she was taken to a concentration camp. He told the student that he typically avoids the subject because of its sensitivity but, at the urging of Tweed, decided to go through with it. Simmons was also shown signing the guest book as he left the museum.

The student then took Simmons and Tweed to his parents' house, where the boy's grandfather talked about his own experience in a Nazi concentration camp. Fighting back tears, Simmons shared the story of going with his mother to sign her immigration papers to come to America. He recalled a man in a business suit asking her to raise her arm and make the Nazi salute. The man then told her, "You'll never have to do that again."

Watching a side of Simmons not many people, even in his own family, get to see, bubble to the surface was both fascinating and heartbreaking -- proving that beneath the kabuki makeup and studded leather is a son doing his best to make his mother proud.

During the cutaways, both Simmons and Tweed stressed the importance of learning from our elders and listening to their stories so that history doesn't repeat itself.

It was a nice and touching departure from the usual ego-placating silliness that has become a staple of the show. Next week Tweed takes her son, Nick, to a strip club for his birthday.